Ronald Reagan praised the automobile for making Los Angeles free—but millions of Southern California commuters are prisoners in their cars. Voters opposed to public transit are paying 4 dollars for a gallon of gasoline. Tonight, is public transit really the answer? Is gridlock a consequence of growth and prosperity? Is the high-density of “smart growth” making things better or worse?

FROM THIS EPISODE

Ronald Reagan praised the automobile for making Los Angeles free—but millions of Southern California commuters are prisoners in their cars. Voters opposed to public transit are paying 4 dollars for a gallon of gasoline. Tonight, is public transit really the answer? Is gridlock a consequence of growth and prosperity? Is the high-density of “smart growth” making things better or worse?

Since the end of World War II, public transit has been a hard sell in
California.Ronald Reagan famously
said that the automobile made us free.But don’t tell that to commuters stuck longer and longer in cars that
are burning up gasoline at the rate of 4 dollars a gallon.